Bidding via bluetooth beacon

ABSTRACT

A method comprises transmitting, by a merchant web-client, a signal using a low energy consuming device, wherein the signal may be received by a transaction account holder web-client, wherein the signal may carry content associated with a merchant, and wherein the merchant is associated with the merchant web-client, and/or receiving, by the merchant web-client, a response from the transaction account holder web-client, wherein the response may be transmitted by the transaction account holder web-client to the merchant web-client using the low energy consuming device. The content may comprise an advertisement associated with an item offered for sale by the merchant.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, claims priority to and thebenefit of, U.S. Ser. No. 14/284,817 filed May 22, 2014 and entitled“SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DYNAMIC PROXIMITY BASED E-COMMERCETRANSACTIONS,” which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety forall purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to e-commerce, and moreparticularly, to the provision of content based upon a micro-location ofa transaction account user.

BACKGROUND

At present, consumers may only receive tailored content (e.g.,advertisements and offers), some of which may be very broadly based uponlocation. It would be desirable to tailor content to consumers basedupon a micro-location, as defined below, of a consumer.

SUMMARY

A method comprises transmitting, by a merchant web-client, a signalusing a low energy consuming device (such as a BLUETOOTH low energyconsuming device), wherein the signal may be received by a transactionaccount holder web-client, and wherein the signal may carry contentassociated with a merchant (wherein the merchant is associated with themerchant web-client), and/or receiving, by the merchant web-client, aresponse from the transaction account holder web-client, wherein theresponse may be transmitted by the transaction account holder web-clientto the merchant web-client using the low energy consuming device. Invarious embodiments, the content may comprise an advertisementassociated with an item offered for sale by the merchant. The method mayfurther comprise receiving, by the merchant web-client, a bid topurchase an item associated with the content, wherein the contentcomprises an item offered for sale by the merchant. The method mayfurther comprise selecting, by the merchant web-client, a bid from aplurality of bids based upon at least one of: a highest bid, a loyaltyassociated with the customer to the merchant, or a new customer statusof the customer with the merchant. The content may comprise aninteractive item catalog of items offered for sale by the merchant. Thelow energy consuming device may communicate with a transaction accountholder web-client within 300 meters of the low energy consuming device.The method may further comprise transmitting, by the computer-basedsystem, content based upon personal information associated with thetransaction account holder.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings. The left-most digit of a reference numberidentifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIG. 1A illustrates, in accordance with various embodiments, a systemfor providing tailored content to a transaction account holder basedupon a micro-location of the transaction account holder;

FIG. 1B illustrates, in accordance with various embodiments, a systemfor receiving a charitable donation from a transaction account holderbased upon a micro-location of the transaction account holder;

FIG. 2A illustrates, in accordance with various embodiments, a processfor providing tailored content to a transaction account holder basedupon a micro-location of the transaction account holder; and

FIG. 2B illustrates, in accordance with various embodiments, a processfor receiving a charitable donation from a transaction account holderbased upon a micro-location of the transaction account holder.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiments byway of illustration and their best mode. While these exemplaryembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice the disclosure, it should be understood thatother embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanicalchanges may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Thus, the detailed description herein is presented forpurposes of illustration only and not of limitation. For example, thesteps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented.Moreover, any of the functions or steps may be outsourced to orperformed by one or more third parties. Furthermore, any reference tosingular includes plural embodiments, and any reference to more than onecomponent may include a singular embodiment.

Phrases and terms similar to a “transaction account holder,” “buyer,”“participant”, “consumer,” and/or “user” may include any person, entity,software and/or hardware that receives items in exchange forconsideration (e.g. financial payment). For example, a buyer maypurchase, lease, rent, barter or otherwise obtain items from a supplierand pay the supplier using a transaction account.

Phrases or terms similar to a “processor” (such as a payment processor)or “transaction account issuer” may include a company (e.g., a thirdparty) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions formerchant banks. Processors may be broken down into two types: front-endand back-end. Front-end processors have connections to varioustransaction accounts and supply authorization and settlement services tothe merchant banks' merchants. Back-end processors accept settlementsfrom front-end processors and, via The Federal Reserve Bank, move moneyfrom an issuing bank to the merchant bank. In an operation that willusually take a few seconds, the payment processor will both check thedetails received by forwarding the details to the respective account'sissuing bank or card association for verification, and may carry out aseries of anti-fraud measures against the transaction. Additionalparameters, including the account's country of issue and its previouspayment history, may be used to gauge the probability of the transactionbeing approved. In response to the payment processor receivingconfirmation that the transaction account details have been verified,the information may be relayed back to the merchant, who will thencomplete the payment transaction. In response to the verification beingdenied, the payment processor relays the information to the merchant,who may then decline the transaction.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

Phrases or terms similar to “transaction account” may include anyaccount that may be used to facilitate a financial transaction. A“transaction account” as used herein refers to an account associatedwith an open account or a closed account system (as described herein).The transaction account may exist in a physical or non-physicalembodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed innon-physical embodiments such as an account number, frequent-flyeraccount, and telephone calling account or the like. Furthermore, aphysical embodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as afinancial instrument.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions betweenthe user (or “transaction account holder”) and merchant through anysuitable communication means, such as, for example, a telephone network,intranet, the global, public Internet, a point of interaction device(e.g., a point of sale (POS) device, personal digital assistant (PDA),mobile telephone, kiosk, etc.), online communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, and/or the like.

As used herein, a “micro-location” of a transaction account holder maycomprise a location of a transaction account holder in relation to anyenergy consuming device. For example, the energy consuming device maycomprise a high, medium, and/or low energy consuming device and/or anycombination thereof. For example, the energy consuming device may be alow power and/or low energy consuming device. Such a device may be aBLUETOOTH device, such as a wireless beacon communicating using a lowpower or low energy BLUETOOTH communication standard (a “BLUETOOTH LOWENERGY beacon” or simply, a “BLE beacon”). However, in variousembodiments, any type of low energy consuming device may be implementedwith the systems described herein. For example, in various embodiments,any device (including any other BLE beacon) capable of communicatingwith a web-client and/or any other BLE beason within three hundredmeters of a BLE beacon may comprise a low energy consuming device. Thus,although the phrase “BLE beacon” is used herein with particular respectto a BLUETOOTH low energy consuming device, a BLE beacon may compriseany energy consuming device capable of communication with a web-client.In various embodiments, the low energy consuming device may capable ofcommunication with a web-client to within approximately three hundredmeters or less—that is, any device capable of communicating with aweb-client within a micro-location of the web-client. As describedabove, a low energy consuming device (e.g., BLE beacon 103 a and/or 103b) may comprise any device capable of transmitting and/or receiving asignal wirelessly using a low power or low energy connection to anetwork. In various embodiments, such a signal may comprise a BLUETOOTHsignal. A BLUETOOTH signal may comprise and/or utilize one or moreinternet protocol (“IP”) session connections. The IP session connectionsmay enable a variety of piconet communication technologies. In variousembodiments, particularly with regard IP version 6, a cryptographic keyexchange protocol (symmetric and/or asymmetric) may be implemented. Forexample, a key management device may utilize IEEE Standard 1363.1-2013for identity based cryptographic techniques that utilize pairings suchthat an encryption key may comprise one or more plain text strings (suchas one or more email addresses).

Accordingly, although the term “BLE beacon” is used herein inassociation with a BLUETOOTH communication protocol and/or signal, thephrase may refer to any communication protocol and/or any other “lowenergy” signal. As used herein, a “low energy signal” may comprise anysignal capable of being received by a web-client within a range ofapproximately three hundred meters or less. In various embodiments, aBLE beacon 103 a and/or 103 b may enable the discovery of amicro-location of a transaction account holder. A micro-location maycomprise any location of the transaction account holder within, forexample, three hundred meters of a BLE beacon.

Phrases and terms similar to an “item” may include any good, service,information, experience, data, discount, rebate, points, virtualcurrency, content, access, rental, lease, contribution, account, credit,debit, benefit, right, reward, points, coupons, credits, monetaryequivalent, anything of value, something of minimal or no value,monetary value, non-monetary value and/or the like. Moreover, the“transactions” or “purchases” discussed herein may be associated with anitem. Furthermore, a “reward” may be an item.

Referring to FIG. 1A, a system 100A for providing tailored content to atransaction account holder based upon a micro-location of thetransaction account holder is shown. The system may comprise a merchantweb-client 102, a low energy consuming device or BLE beacon 103 a, anetwork 104, a low energy consuming device or BLE beacon 103 b, atransaction account holder web-client 106, and/or a transaction accountserver system 108.

Referring to FIG. 1B, a system for receiving a charitable donation froma transaction account holder based upon a micro-location of thetransaction account holder is shown. The system may comprise a lowenergy consuming device or BLE beacon 103 a, a network 104, a low energyconsuming device or BLE beacon 103 b, a transaction account holderweb-client 106, and/or a transaction account server system 108.

A merchant web-client 102 and/or a transaction account holder web-client106 may include any device (e.g., personal computing device/mobilecommunication device) which communicates via any network. A web-clientmay be associated with and/or used by a consumer, a merchant, or both. Aweb-client may comprise a variety of browsing software or browserapplications (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, GoogleChrome, Apple Safari, or any other of the myriad software packagesavailable for browsing the internet). Such browser applications maycomprise Internet browsing software installed within a computing unit ora system to conduct online transactions and/or communications. Thesecomputing units or systems may take the form of a computer or processor,or a set of computers/processors, although other types of computingunits or systems may be used, including laptops, notebooks, hand heldcomputers, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, smart phones(e.g., iPhone®, BlackBerry®, Droid®, etc.) set-top boxes, workstations,computer-servers, main frame computers, mini-computers, PC servers,pervasive computers, network sets of computers, personal computers, suchas iPads, iMACs, and MacBooks, kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS)devices and/or terminals, televisions, or any other device capable ofreceiving data over a network 104.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a web-client may include anoperating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000/CE/Mobile, OS2, UNIX,Linux, Solaris, MacOS, PalmOS, etc.) as well as various conventionalsupport software and drivers typically associated with computers. Aweb-client may implement security protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). A web-client may implement oneor more application layer protocols, including, for example, http,https, ftp, and sftp. Transactions originating at a web client may passthrough a firewall (not shown; see below) in order to preventunauthorized access from users of other networks.

A network 104 may comprise any electronic communications system ormethod which incorporates software and/or hardware components.Communication may be accomplished through any suitable communicationchannels, such as, for example, a telephone network, an extranet, anintranet, Internet, point of interaction device (point of sale device,personal digital assistant, smart phone, cellular phone (e.g., iPhone®,Palm Pilot®, Blackberry®), kiosk, etc.), online communications,satellite communications, off-line communications, wirelesscommunications, transponder communications, local area network (LAN),wide area network (WAN), virtual private network (VPN), networked orlinked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or any suitable communication ordata input modality. Moreover, although a network 104 may be describedherein as being implemented with TCP/IP communications protocols, thenetwork 104 may also be implemented using IPX, Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS,OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH), or any number of existingor future protocols. If the network 104 is in the nature of a publicnetwork, such as the Internet, it may be advantageous to presume thenetwork 104 to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers. Specificinformation related to the protocols, standards, and applicationsoftware utilized in connection with the Internet is generally known tothose skilled in the art and, as such, need not be detailed herein. See,for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2COMPLETE, various authors, (Sybex 1999); DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY,MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IP CLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997)and DAVID GOURLEY AND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002),the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The various system components described herein may be independently,separately or collectively coupled to the network 104 via one or moredata links including, for example, a connection to an Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) over a local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network 104 maybe implemented variously. For example, network 104 may be implemented asan interactive television (ITV) network. The systems and methodsdisclosed herein contemplate the use, sale and/or distribution of anygoods, services or information over any network having functionalitysimilar to that described above with reference to network 104.

In various embodiments, a transaction account server system 108 maycomprise any type of hardware and/or software (e.g., a computer serveror computer server system) configured or configurable to perform theprocesses described below.

With reference to FIG. 2A, an exemplary process 200A for providingtailored content to a transaction account holder based upon amicro-location of the transaction account holder is shown. In variousembodiments, a merchant may log into a BLE application (such as asoftware application) using a merchant web-client 102 (step 202A). Themerchant may acquire (e.g., the merchant may photograph, download, orotherwise acquire) an image associated with an item offered for sale bythe merchant (step 204A). In various embodiments, the merchant mayassociate data (e.g., price data) with the item (step 206A). Further, invarious embodiments, the merchant may advertise the item for sale (ortransmit a signal carrying advertisement information) using a BLE beacon103 a linked to the merchant web-client 102 via the network 104 (step208A). As described herein, an advertisement may relate to and/or beassociated with any item. A variety of (non-limiting) items aredescribed above. The merchant may further associate an offer with theitem, which may vary in time and/or based upon the transaction accountholder's status (e.g., new customer, loyal customer, etc.) with themerchant.

Similarly, a merchant may transmit, to a transaction account holderweb-client 106, using a BLE beacon 103 a and/or 103 b, an interactiveitem catalog and/or an interactive offer. Similarly, a merchant mayreceive real-time feedback from a transaction account holder in relationto an item purchased via the processes described herein. Further still,the systems described herein may facilitate interactive gas pumpstations, such as a gas pump station installed with a BLE beacon 103 aand/or 103 b that enables a transaction account holder, using thetransaction account holder's BLE application, to select a fuel gradeand/or pay for fuel using the BLE application, for example. A BLE beacon103 a and/or 103 b installed in a gas pump station may furthercommunicate to the transaction account holder (e.g., through thetransaction account holder's BLE application) the benefits of usingpremium gasoline based, for example, on the transaction account holder'svehicle model and/or year, a cost or comparison of gas prices, such as acomparison of two consecutive gas purchases, and the like.

Meanwhile (and/or at any time), a transaction account holder may loginto a BLE application (e.g., a software application) using thetransaction account holder web-client 106 (step 210A). Further, invarious embodiments, the transaction account holder may receive, usingthe BLE application installed on the transaction account holderweb-client 106, the advertisement provided by the merchant (step 212A).The transaction account holder BLE application may display theadvertisement for the transaction account holder using the transactionaccount holder web-client 106.

In various embodiments, having received the advertisement, for example,the transaction account holder may place a bid (e.g., a price thetransaction account holder is willing to pay for the item) on the itemusing the transaction account holder's BLE application installed on thetransaction account holder's web-client 106 (step 214A). The transactionaccount holder may further purchase the item (in response, for example,to winning the bid by offering to pay the highest price among aplurality of bidders). Moreover, in various embodiments, the transactionaccount holder may simply purchase an advertised item, rather than, forexample, bidding on the item. Thus, in various embodiments, the merchantweb-client 102 may receive a response from the transaction accountholder's web-client 106 transmitted by one or more BLE beacons 103 aand/or 103 b.

However, in the case of a bid, the merchant may determine whether toaccept a transaction account holder's bid from among a plurality of bids(step 216A). The criteria for determining whether to accept a bid may bebased on the highest price bid, a loyalty of a transaction accountholder to the merchant, the fact that the transaction account holder hasnever made a purchase with the merchant, and the like. Similarly,merchants may offer bids to transaction account holders based uponpersonal information associated with a transaction account holder, thetime of day, the location of the transaction account holder, and thelike. Factors such as these may influence the merchant's determinationas to which transaction holder to award the item to. Thus, the highestbidder may not necessarily win a bid, particularly where, for example,the merchant wishes to reward a loyal customer and/or entice a newcustomer to shop again with the merchant.

In response to accepting a bid and/or receiving a purchase request(absent a bid), the transaction account holder may, through the BLEapplication installed on the transaction account holder's web-client106, request, through the network 104, the transaction account serversystem 108, payment by the transaction account issuer, for the item(step 218A). In response, the merchant may receive a purchasenotification (e.g., from the transaction account server system 108)and/or transaction account holder authentication details (step 220A).Thus, the merchant may be notified, perhaps of the merchant's BLEapplication, that the transaction account holder has been approved tomake the purchase. In response, the transaction account holder mayphysically retrieve and/or receive from the merchant the item (step222A).

In various embodiments, a transaction account holder may, in response toplacing a bid and/or purchasing an item, provide to the merchant, usingthe transaction account holder's BLE application, feedback associatedwith the bid and/or purchase. The feedback may, as described herein, bereceived by a BLE beacon 103 a and/or 103 b and transmitted to themerchant BLE application.

With regard to FIG. 2B, a process 200B for receiving a charitabledonation from a transaction account holder based upon a micro-locationof the transaction account holder is shown. In various embodiments, acharity and/or a requested donation amount associated with a charity maybe advertised within a micro-location by a BLE beacon, such as BLEbeacon 103 a (step 202B). The BLE beacon 103 a may be communicativelycoupled to a system for receiving the donation.

Further, in various embodiments, a transaction account holder may loginto the transaction account holder's BLE application (as describedabove) using the transaction account holder's web-client 106 (step204B). The transaction account holder may, using the BLE application,select an amount and or select an option to make a charitable donation,whereupon the transaction account holder web-client 106 may requestauthorization from the transaction account server system 108 and/ortransaction account issuer (in communication with or owning thetransaction account server system 108) for authorization. In response toauthorization, the transaction account server system 108 may communicatewith the BLE beacon 103 a through network 104 to transfer funds to thecharity. The transaction account holder may further receive, in responseto the donation, a document or record indicating that the transactionaccount holder made the donation, such as for example, for tax purposes.

An “account”, “account code”, or “account number”, as used herein, mayinclude any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate,smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access,interact with or communicate with the system (e.g., one or more of anauthorization/access code, personal identification number (PIN),Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like). The accountnumber may optionally be located on or associated with a rewards card,charge card, credit card, debit card, prepaid card, telephone card,embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account. The systemmay include or interface with any of the foregoing cards or devices, QRcodes, Bluetooth, Near Field Communication, or a transponder and RFIDreader in RF communication with the transponder (which may include afob). Typical devices may include, for example, a key ring, tag, card,cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable of being presented forinterrogation.

As used herein, a system, computing unit or device may include a“pervasive computing device,” which may include a traditionallynon-computerized device that is embedded with a computing unit. Examplescan include watches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances, restauranttables embedded with RF readers, wallets or purses with imbeddedtransponders, etc.

The account code may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A customer account code may be, for example, asixteen-digit transaction account code, although each transactionaccount provider has its own numbering system, such as the fifteen-digitnumbering system used by American Express. Each company's transactionaccount codes comply with that company's standardized format such thatthe company using a fifteen-digit format will generally use three-spacedsets of numbers, as represented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. Thefirst five to seven digits are reserved for processing purposes andidentify the issuing bank, card type, etc. In this example, the last(fifteenth) digit is used as a sum check for the fifteen digit number.The intermediary eight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identifythe customer. A merchant account code may be, for example, any number oralpha-numeric characters that identify a particular merchant forpurposes of card acceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or thelike.

It should be noted that the transfer of information in accordance withthe present disclosure, may be completed in a format recognizable by amerchant system or account issuer. In that regard, by way of example,the information may be transmitted from a contactless (e.g., an RFIDdevice) to a contactless (e.g., RFID) reader or from the contactlessreader to the merchant system in a variety of formats, e.g., magneticstripe or multi-track magnetic stripe format.

As used herein, phrases and terms similar to “financial institution,”“transaction account issuer” and “payment processor” may include anyperson, entity, software and/or hardware that offers transaction accountservices. Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” thefinancial institution may represent any type of bank, lender or othertype of account issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument,” or “transaction account product” may be usedinterchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument. As usedherein, an account code may or may not be associated with a physicalfinancial instrument.

In the detailed description herein, references to “one embodiment”, “anembodiment”, “an example embodiment”, “various embodiments”, etc.,indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implementthe disclosure in certain embodiments.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the particular machines, andthose hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as would beappreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000, XP, Vista, OS2, UNIX, Linux,Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well as various conventional support softwareand drivers typically associated with computers. A user may include anyindividual, business, entity, government organization, software and/orhardware that interact with a system.

In an embodiment, various components, modules, and/or engines of systems100A and/or 100B may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps.Micro-apps are typically deployed in the context of a mobile operatingsystem, including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windowsmobile operating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, aBlackberry operating system and the like. The micro-app may beconfigured to leverage the resources of the larger operating system andassociated hardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern theoperations of various operating systems and hardware resources. Forexample, where a micro-app desires to communicate with a device ornetwork other than the mobile device or mobile operating system, themicro-app may leverage the communication protocol of the operatingsystem and associated device hardware under the predetermined rules ofthe mobile operating system. Moreover, where the micro-app desires aninput from a user, the micro-app may be configured to request a responsefrom the operating system which monitors various hardware components andthen communicates a detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, or object-oriented structure and/or any other databaseconfigurations. Common database products that may be used to implementthe databases include DB2 by IBM (Armonk, N.Y.), various databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores, Calif.),Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by Microsoft Corporation(Redmond, Wash.), MySQL by MySQL AB (Uppsala, Sweden), or any othersuitable database product. Moreover, the databases may be organized inany suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookup tables. Eachrecord may be a single file, a series of files, a linked series of datafields or any other data structure. Association of certain data may beaccomplished through any desired data association technique such asthose known or practiced in the art. For example, the association may beaccomplished either manually or automatically. Automatic associationtechniques may include, for example, a database search, a databasemerge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, using a key field in the tables to speedsearches, sequential searches through all the tables and files, sortingrecords in the file according to a known order to simplify lookup,and/or the like. The association step may be accomplished by a databasemerge function, for example, using a “key field” in pre-selecteddatabases or data sectors. Various database tuning steps arecontemplated to optimize database performance. For example, frequentlyused files such as indexes may be placed on separate file systems toreduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In one exemplary embodiment, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored on the financial transaction instrument orexternal to but affiliated with the financial transaction instrument.The BLOB method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formattedas a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixedstorage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices withrespect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used,etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store various data setsthat have different formats facilitates the storage of data associatedwith the financial transaction instrument by multiple and unrelatedowners of the data sets. For example, a first data set which may bestored may be provided by a first party, a second data set which may bestored may be provided by an unrelated second party, and yet a thirddata set which may be stored, may be provided by an third partyunrelated to the first and second party. Each of these three exemplarydata sets may contain different information that is stored usingdifferent data storage formats and/or techniques. Further, each data setmay contain subsets of data that also may be distinct from othersubsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, in one exemplary embodiment, thedata set (e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standard manner whenprovided for manipulating the data onto the financial transactioninstrument. The annotation may comprise a short header, trailer, orother appropriate indicator related to each data set that is configuredto convey information useful in managing the various data sets. Forexample, the annotation may be called a “condition header”, “header”,“trailer”, or “status”, herein, and may comprise an indication of thestatus of the data set or may include an identifier correlated to aspecific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by a standalone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, or augmentthe data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, in oneembodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the transactioninstrument user at the stand alone device, the appropriate option forthe action to be taken. The system may contemplate a data storagearrangement wherein the header or trailer, or header or trailer history,of the data is stored on the transaction instrument in relation to theappropriate data.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

A firewall may comprise any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto protect systems 100A and/or 100B components and/or enterprisecomputing resources from users of other networks. Further, a firewallmay be configured to limit or restrict access to various systems andcomponents behind the firewall for web clients connecting through a webserver. A firewall may reside in varying configurations includingStateful Inspection, Proxy based, access control lists, and PacketFiltering among others. A firewall may be integrated within a web serveror any other CMS components or may further reside as a separate entity.A firewall may implement network address translation (“NAT”) and/ornetwork address port translation (“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodatevarious tunneling protocols to facilitate secure communications, such asthose used in virtual private networking. A firewall may implement ademilitarized zone (“DMZ”) to facilitate communications with a publicnetwork such as the Internet. A firewall may be integrated as softwarewithin an Internet server, any other application server components ormay reside within another computing device or may take the form of astandalone hardware component.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, and symmetric and asymmetriccryptosystems.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript and XML), helper applications, plug-ins, andthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB SERVICES:A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphereMQTM (formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

As used herein, the term “end user”, “consumer”, “customer”,“cardmember”, “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably witheach other, and each shall mean any person, entity, machine, hardware,software or business. A bank may be part of the system, but the bank mayrepresent other types of card issuing institutions, such as credit cardcompanies, card sponsoring companies, or third party issuers undercontract with financial institutions. It is further noted that otherparticipants may be involved in some phases of the transaction, such asan intermediary settlement institution, but these participants are notshown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order tointeract with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions.The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones,touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unitimplemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computingcenter shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computingcenter may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PCserver, a network of computers located in the same of differentgeographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, upgraded software, a stand alone system, a distributed system,a method, a data processing system, a device for data processing, and/ora computer program product. Accordingly, the system may take the form ofan entirely software embodiment, an entirely hardware embodiment, or anembodiment combining aspects of both software and hardware. Furthermore,the system may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program codemeans embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable computer-readablestorage medium may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, opticalstorage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the inventionshave been described as a method in certain embodiments, it iscontemplated that it may be embodied as computer program instructions ona tangible computer-readable carrier, such as a magnetic or opticalmemory or a magnetic or optical disk. All structural, chemical, andfunctional equivalents to the elements of the above-described exemplaryembodiments that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art areexpressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to beencompassed by the present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for adevice or method to address each and every problem sought to be solvedby the present disclosure, for it to be encompassed by the presentclaims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in thepresent disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardlessof whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recitedin the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed under theprovisions of 35 U.S.C. 112(f) unless the element is expressly recitedusing the phrase “means for.” As used herein, the terms “comprises”,“comprising”, or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover anon-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, orapparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only thoseelements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherentto such process, method, article, or apparatus.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a merchantweb-client and from a transaction account holder web-client, a firstsignal using a low energy consuming device, in response to a customerlogging into an app on the transaction account holder web-client,wherein the first signal includes personal information associated withthe customer and a micro-location of the transaction account holderweb-client; and receiving, by the merchant web-client and from thetransaction account holder web-client using the low energy consumingdevice, a response including a bid to purchase an item from a pluralityof items offered by a merchant associated with the merchant web-client.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the low energy consuming devicecomprises a low energy BLUETOOTH beacon (“BLE beacon”), and wherein theBLE beacon utilizes a cryptographic key exchange protocol.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein the low energy consuming device communicates withthe transaction account holder web-client within 300 meters of the lowenergy consuming device.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprisinguploading, by the merchant web-client, merchant content for theplurality of items offered for sale by the merchant.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein a transaction account of the customer is synched withthe transaction account holder web-client to create a synchedtransaction account.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining, by the merchant web-client, merchant content based upon thepersonal information associated with the customer.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising updating, by the merchant web-client,merchant content to create updated content while the transaction accountholder web-client is located within the micro-location.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising updating, by the merchant web-client,merchant content to create updated content while the transaction accountholder web-client is located within the micro-location and based uponthe micro-location of the transaction account holder web-client and atleast one of new customer status, loyal customer status or time of daythat the transaction account holder web-client is located within themicro-location.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprisingtransmitting, by the merchant web-client and to the transaction accountholder web-client, an interactive item catalog of the plurality of itemsbased on updated content and offered for sale by the merchant.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the merchantweb-client and to the transaction account holder web-client, aninteractive item catalog of the plurality of items based on updatedcontent and offered for sale by the merchant while the transactionaccount holder web-client is located within the micro-location.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the merchantweb-client, a second signal using the low energy consuming device. 12.The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the merchantweb-client, a second signal using the low energy consuming device,wherein the second signal is received by the transaction account holderweb-client associated with the customer while the transaction accountholder web-client is located within the micro-location.
 13. The methodof claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the merchant web-client,a second signal using the low energy consuming device, wherein thesecond signal carries updated content associated with the merchant. 14.The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the merchantweb-client, a second signal using the low energy consuming device,wherein the second signal carries updated content associated with themerchant, wherein the updated content comprises an advertisement for anitem of the plurality of items offered for sale by the merchant, andwherein the advertisement is based on the updated content.
 15. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising selecting, by the merchantweb-client, the bid from a plurality of bids based upon at least one of:a highest bid, a loyalty associated with the customer to the merchant,or a new customer status of the customer with the merchant.
 16. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising notifying, by the merchantweb-client, the transaction account holder web-client of winning thebid.
 17. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by themerchant web-client and from a payment processor, payment informationand authentication details associated with the item, in response to thetransaction account holder web-client authorizing the payment processorto pay for the item using a synched transaction account.
 18. The methodof claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the merchant web-client,feedback from the transaction account holder web-client using the lowenergy consuming device.
 19. A merchant web-client comprising: aprocessor; and a tangible, non-transitory memory communicating with theprocessor, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructionsstored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, causethe processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, by themerchant web-client and from a transaction account holder web-client, afirst signal using a low energy consuming device, in response to acustomer logging into an app on the transaction account holderweb-client, wherein the first signal includes personal informationassociated with the customer and a micro-location of the transactionaccount holder web-client; and receiving, by the merchant web-client andfrom the transaction account holder web-client using the low energyconsuming device, a response including a bid to purchase an item from aplurality of items offered by a merchant associated with the merchantweb-client.
 20. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory,tangible computer readable medium having instructions stored thereonthat, in response to execution by a merchant web-client, cause themerchant web-client to perform operations comprising: receiving, by themerchant web-client and from a transaction account holder web-client, afirst signal using a low energy consuming device, in response to acustomer logging into an app on the transaction account holderweb-client, wherein the first signal includes personal informationassociated with the customer and a micro-location of the transactionaccount holder web-client; and receiving, by the merchant web-client andfrom the transaction account holder web-client using the low energyconsuming device, a response including a bid to purchase an item from aplurality of items offered by a merchant associated with the merchantweb-client.